The present disclosure relates in general to computer systems, and more specifically to cognitive computer systems and computer-implemented methods for communicating with a customer based on a cognitive determination that the customer is expected to travel on a route to a store location.
The phrase “brick-and-mortar” merchant refers to a business that is located in a building as opposed to an online shopping destination, door-to-door sales, a kiosk or other similar site not housed within a structure. A traditional brick-and-mortar company deals with its customers face to face in an office or store that the business owns or rents. The local grocery store and the corner bank are examples of brick-and-mortar companies. Brick-and-mortar businesses can find it challenging to compete with web-based, online-only businesses because the latter usually have lower inventory and operating costs and greater flexibility in terms of hours of operation, assortment range and pricing offers.
It is increasingly common for brick-and-mortar businesses to also have an online presence. As a response to their online-only competitors, many retailers also offer merchandise for sale through the retailer's website, thus offering customers substantially the same online convenience provided by online-only retailers. Some brick-and-mortar grocery stores, for example, allow customers to shop for groceries online and have them delivered directly to their doorstep within a few hours.
Another strategy adopted by brick-and-mortar merchants to compete with online-only merchants is to offer buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) transactions as a purchase option to their customers. In a typical BOPIS transaction, customers find the item they want online, where they also check its availability at a nearby brick-and-mortar store location. If the product is in stock, the customer can purchase the item online and find it ready for pick-up at the local store, generally within one to three hours. For certain products that are not in stock, the seller may also offer customers a free delivery to the local store, where the customer can pick-up the item after receiving notification that the item has arrived.